Feb
6 – ORLANDO, Fla. – Mark
R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge (SAC)
of the Miami Field Division (MFD), Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), announced today the
issuance of Immediate Suspension Orders (ISO)
at Cardinal Health, a pharmaceutical wholesale
distributor in Lakeland, Florida, and two
of its customers, CVS/Pharmacy #219 and CVS/Pharmacy
#5195, both located in Sanford, Florida.
An ISO is served pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 824(d)
when a DEA-registered business or individual
(“registrant”) constitutes an
imminent danger to the public safety and
suspends a registrant’s ability to
handle or distribute a controlled substance
such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and others
pending a judicial proceeding.

These
actions are part of the DEA MFD’s
continuing efforts to combat the state’s
prescription drug abuse epidemic and its role
as a major source to other states of diverted
pharmaceutical drugs. On average, seven people
die every day in Florida due to prescription
drug abuse, according to the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement. The efforts in recent years
have included arrests and criminal actions
against Florida doctors and individually owned
pharmacies that operated outside the scope
of legitimate medical purposes.

The
ISO against Cardinal Health’s Lakeland
distribution center, located at 2045 Interstate
Drive, Lakeland, alleges that this distribution
center failed to maintain effective controls
against the diversion of controlled substances
into other than legitimate medical, scientific,
and industrial channels, in violation of 21
U.S.C. § 823(b)(1) and (e)(1). Furthermore,
it alleges that Cardinal Health failed to conduct
due diligence to ensure that the controlled
substances were not diverted into other than
legitimate channels. The ISO was served at
this location on Friday, February 3.

Friday’s operation at the Lakeland
facility is not DEA’s first visit. In
December 2007, DEA issued an ISO at the location
due to its distribution of hydrocodone to ‘rogue’ internet
pharmacies. That action, and similar actions
at other Cardinal Health facilities across
the United States, resulted in a $34 million
fine. $16 million of this amount was paid to
the United States Attorney’s Office,
Middle District of Florida. Since October 2008,
Cardinal Health has been operating under an
Administrative Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)
with the DEA that requires Cardinal Health
to “maintain a compliance program designed
to detect and prevent diversion of controlled
substances as required under the Controlled
Substances Act and applicable DEA regulations.” More
details regarding the previous cases against
Cardinal Health can be found at www.DEA.gov.

The
ISOs served at CVS/Pharmacy #219, 3798 Orlando
Drive, Sanford, FL 32773, and CVS/Pharmacy
#5195, 4369 W. 1st Street, Sanford, FL 32771,
allege, among other things, that each registrant
failed to exercise its corresponding duty regarding
the proper prescribing and dispensing of controlled
substances in violation of 21 C.F.R. § 1306.04(a).
According to the ISO, each registrant was filling
prescriptions far in excess of the legitimate
needs of its customers. The average pharmacy
in the U.S. in 2011 ordered approximately 69,000
oxycodone dosage units. Collectively, these
two pharmacies, located approximately 5.5 miles
apart, ordered over three million dosage units
during the same year. The ISOs allege that
each registrant knew, or should have known,
that a large number of the prescriptions for
controlled substances that it filled were not
issued for a legitimate medical purpose or
were issued outside the usual course of professional
practice. This action applies only to the distribution
of controlled substances at these two locations
and not to other retail products, including
non-controlled pharmaceutical drugs.

“The DEA Miami Field Division has a
long history of working large-scale cases from
the bottom to the top of drug trafficking organizations,” said
DEA MFD SAC Mark R. Trouville. “The manner
in which we are addressing the current threat
from pharmaceutical drugs is no exception.
We will continue to investigate all of those
involved in the diversion of pharmaceutical
controlled substances, regardless of their
level in an organization.”

Cardinal Health and the two CVS/Pharmacy
locations will be given an opportunity for
an administrative hearing to determine whether
the DEA Certificate of Registration at each
of the three locations should be revoked. The
final decision will be published in the Federal
Register.

Also
on Friday, Cardinal Health filed for a Temporary
Restraining Order in U.S. District Court
in Washington, D.C. seeking to remove their
suspension to handle controlled substances
and allowing them to resume their activities.
The District Court Judge granted Cardinal’s
request pending a hearing scheduled for Monday,
February 13, 2012.

More
than seven million Americans abuse prescription
drugs, according to the 2010 Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration’s
National Survey on Drug Use and Health. And
every day, on average, 2,500 teens use them
to get high for the first time, according to
the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Other DEA MFD efforts include its enforcement
operations such as Operation Pill Nation in
South Florida, Operation Pill Nation II in
Tampa, Operation Medicine Shoppe in Central
Florida, and DEA National Prescription Drug
Take-Back Day occurring on April 28, 2012.